By Brian Rosener ~ DAR Sports Editor

POPLAR BLUFF -- Perhaps Tuesday night at Peters Gym didn't even count.

A pair of state qualifiers met in an exhibition match as Poplar Bluff's Paul Swesey beat Gavilan Bland of Sikeston 9-2. Both wrestlers finished second Saturday at the Tiger Classic in Cape Girardeau but both won by forfeit Tuesday as the Mules won 71-9.

"If you don't have challenging matches all the time, you won't get better," said Mules coach Brian Wisdom of matching up the 171-pound Bland and the 189-pound Swesey.

Poplar Bluff took two of the three matches that did count as 130-pounder Brandon Bounds won 17-2 and Kelton Thompson pinned his opponent in 3 minutes, 11 seconds.

Sikeston's Jacob Murphy won the 112-pound match 5-1 with a first-period takedown and a third-period reversal against Zach Surque, who finished fifth Saturday.

Thompson finished third at the Tiger Classic, going 6-2 in the two-day tournament and beating Cody Lee of Ft. Zumwalt West 15-3 in his final match.

"I was real impressed with Kelton (and) Paul did well too (Saturday)," Wisdom said. "Kelton is getting more aggressive and he's doing a lot better."

Swesey lost his first match of the season in the final Saturday to McCluer North's Kevin Knopf, who earned a medal at the Class 4 state tournament last season. Knopf pinned Swesey at the 3:20 mark.

Wisdom said of his senior is going to lose, now is a good time to learn from it. The lesson Saturday was to slow the match down, he added.

"He wrestles a little bit to where he thinks he needs to score all the time," Wisdom said. "When you try to score, sometimes it gets you in bad situations. That's exactly what happened to Paul."

Ethan Swingle finished fifth at 103 pounds Saturday, losing to Blake Hatheway 13-5 in the final match.

The Mules lost heavyweight Dylan Janes for at least six weeks when the junior dislocated his elbow.

Poplar Bluff won 10 matches by forfeit Tuesday with Swingle (103 pounds), Colton Woodsmall (119), Storm McClure (125), Cameron West (135), Jordan Henningsen (140), Dallas Berry (145), Brent Wagner (152), Shawn Phillips (160), Swesey (189) and David Hadley (275).

JUNIOR VARSITY: The Mules won 60-6 by taking eight matches by forfeit.

Poplar Bluff's Josh Townsend (125) pinned Damian Thurman at 3:00 while Anna Fromm (130) needed 1:30 to pin Elizabeth Bolen. In the only other match, Sikeston's Dillon Kimball pinned John Paul Clark in 2:27.

In an exhibition match, Sikeston's Matthew Davis pinned Remington Hall at 1:33.

JUNIOR HIGH: Sikeston won 54-40 with five pins, winning 10 in all. Poplar Bluff's Trevor Parks got a pin at 1:50 as did Colten Gaebler (1:04), Kaleb Barton (0:54), Tray Brown (0:18), Luke Latourette (2:57) and Keith Harris (5:49). The Mules also got a 18-9 win by Cody Fromm. Preston King lost his match 2-0 while Brandon Head lost 16-1, Hunter Pyland lost 21-6, Brody Ferguson lost 15-0 and Alex Bryeans lost 18-9 for the Mules.